The much-anticipated Autumn Budget has finally been announced, and the Bingo Association have been monitoring the announcements.
The headline is that the Chancellor has announced tax rises worth £40bn, that will be used to rebuild public services and stabilise the public finances.
Attached to this article is the full Budget document.
To help members, here’s a summary of the key points that might affect the Bingo sector:
Regarding Gaming Duty bands and Remote gambling duty reform (page 134):
5.106 Gaming duty bands – The Gross Gaming Yield bandings for gaming duty will be frozen from 1 April 2025 until 31 March 2026.
5.107 Remote gambling duty reform – The government will consult next year on proposals to bring remote gambling (meaning gambling offered over the internet, telephone, TV and radio) into a single tax, rather than taxing it through a three-tax structure. This will aim to simplify, future-proof and close loopholes in the system.
(Comment on “missed opportunity” by Matt Zarb-Cousin here: Matt Zarb-Cousin on X: “Missed opportunity by Reeves. She could have increased remote gaming duty on gambling companies, many of which are based offshore so deliver no employment benefit to Britain and avoid UK corporation tax. Meanwhile she decided to raise employers’ National Insurance on jobs in” / X )
Business Rates (page 130):
5.70 Business rates: retail, hospitality and leisure relief – For 2025-26, eligible retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties in England will receive 40% relief on their business rates liability. RHL properties will be eligible to receive support up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business.
5.71 Business rates: multipliers – For 2025-26, the small business multiplier in England will be frozen at 49.9p. The government will lay secondary legislation to freeze the small business multiplier. The standard multiplier will be uprated by the September 2024 CPI rate to 55.5p.
5.72 Business rates: sectoral multipliers – The government intends to introduce permanently lower multipliers for Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) properties from 2026-27, paid for by a higher multiplier for properties with Rateable Values above £500,000.
5.73 Business rates reform – A discussion paper has been published setting the direction of travel for transforming the business rates system and inviting industry to a dialogue about future reforms.
5.74 Business rates: Disclosure Consultation Summary of Responses – The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) is publishing a response to the March 2023 Consultation on Disclosure, which sets out the next steps on increasing the transparency of business rates valuations by disclosing more information
NI Contributions (page 4):
To repair the public finances and help raise the revenue required to increase funding for public services, the government is taking the difficult decision to increase the rate of employer NICs by 1.2 percentage points to 15%. The per-employee threshold at which employers start to pay National Insurance will be reduced from £9,100 per year to £5,000 per year. These changes will apply from 6 April 2025.
To support small businesses with these changes, the government is increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500 and removing the £100,000 threshold, expanding this to all eligible employers. This means that 865,000 employers will pay no NICs next year.
